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This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2014 at 12:00 pm and is filed under NZ Politics.
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I got news for you Russell – trains have problems too. An airport train was cancelled at Rome and everyone had to wait half an hour and the next train was packed like sardines (and you pay a premium price – where is Mussolini ‘get the trains running on time’ when you need him). In my case timing was tight but got the flight to HK/NZ OK, but some poor businessman was panicking with fear he would miss his flight.

Then there was a holdup with a Brisbane airport train at Eagle Junction (I think a train on the single track beyond the Junction had problems) and I was wondering whether to bail out and get a taxi.

Somebody was claiming yesterday that destruction of billboards was ‘democracy in action’, the ‘little people’ finally getting their say. Perhaps would could apply this idea here too? The bus driver was simply protesting against the Green Party’s policies.

Airport light rail systems do not work
the Sydney one is a failure and so is Brisbane
cost millions lose millions
the loopy greens wanted one in wellington costing $900 million – madness
The links have to serve suburbs to and beyond the airport
they therefore need dual purpose trains with luggage racks to suit travelers
secondly no business traveler is going to traipse to the railway stations or downtown from say the north shore to catch a train they take a cab or a shuttle -they are not paying personally,
Hotels run shuttles

Buses are far more flexible, the wellington one runs every 15 minutes.
What is needed for Russell is an app that not only tells you the bus is coming but tells the bus you are there
sure some kid can fix that and make a fortune

Fantastic. Talk about ‘off the cuff’ policy. Good old Greens, every time something doesn’t go the way they think it should, we can just spend $1.5bn to fix it. I think he should have checked the price of a taxi before saying we should build an entire railway for him…I mean, $70, $1.5bn…oh wait…it’s the Greens…

Didn’t the Greens miss a byelection a few years ago because they drove to submit their paperwork and got stuck in traffic? And Genter had her luggage stolen when she left it unattrnded waiting for a bus? I think the Greens might just be incompetent at getting around cities. Maybe buses, trains, and cars are all too confusing for them.

Buses are far more flexible, the wellington one runs every 15 minutes.

The Airport Flyer is always full of Gold Card holders getting the freebie expensive taxpayer trip instead of the normal bus that costs half as much. I have caught it from the Hutt to the airport several times and it was practically empty other than me once it got past Kirks.

What nonsense. Why should Auckland be like practically every other developed nation and have a rail-link to the airport?
The Buses are pretty good actually, much better than the taxi’s however, a dedicated rail link to Manukau then into town and then out west would be ideal.

The driver didn’t like the look of him .After all he looks like Tricky Nicky Hagar that thieving rat faced email crook,Who has been making money by selling stolen goods.Bus driver didn’t want him aboard, as like most of the stolen emails ,he tells lies with his own interpretation.Driver didn’t want to be compromised,good on him he knowns a rat faced crook when he sees one.

Can’t even get a bus to stop for him at a bus stop, but somehow he’s going to run the country?

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! what a wally.

I used the busses to get to and from work in Auckland for 4 years. NEVER ONCE had one fail to see me and drive past.

PLEASE SIGNAL DRIVER retards.

Do it like you mean it.

Wave your hand above your head s the poor bastard trying to drive a bus in Auckland traffic can see you.

(I’ve seen so many teenagers try to do this oh-so-cool little wave with their hand basically by their hip, because they are FAR too oh-so-cool to put their hand up and wave properly.

And THEN they end up running down the street after the bus, waving BOTH arms above their heads like idiots, because the driver didn’t see their oh-so-cool little hip level cool kid wave and so – quite reasonably – assumed they were waiting for some other bus.)

I don’t know the background to the Sydney airport train, but from a consumer point of view it’s great. Airport to circular key in 20 mins. Perfect.

Melbourne has just announced plans to build one too, frankly about time.

Auckland ? Much as i’d love one, the honest truth is that we don’t need one. In Sydney with 5m people it works. At 1.5m people Auckland is too small and doesn’t have the flight traffic to make it remotely economic.

Another thing the Greens forget is that a large portion of the people going to or coming from the airport are carrying heavy suitcases. A taxi or private car is much easier than struggling onto a bus or train. Also the car will be at your front door. A passenger still has to get from home to the bus or train and in reverse.

“What is needed for Russell is an app that not only tells you the bus is coming but tells the bus you are there
sure some kid can fix that and make a fortune” http://car.ma May be better than a rail link. Timetabling buses also needs to be more flexible. Drivers sometimes find it hard to keep to the timetable. And sometimes they pull over to a stop and find that they are not the bus that is wanted after all. Most cities have an app telling you when the bus is coming, but they don’t always work. (And even the display for the bus from Wellington Station to the Airport may give wrong advice about which buses are cancelled so ones come that you wouldn’t expect.) Jobs can be provided and the economy stimulated by government spending other than military and disaster.

Alan, Sydney had another motivation, the airport connection was completed for the 2000 Olympics. But to be honest, apart from peak traffic times, a taxi is just as quick, far more convenient and not that much more expensive.

Oh Wussel, you giant egg-burger. The Airtbus is actually one of the few good examples of Auckland public transport, which is usually nightmarish.

If he’d bothered reading any of the maps, he would have known that he could walk 2 minutes down the road to Khyber Pass from TV3 and caught the service from there, as it alternates between Dominion Rd and Mt Eden Rd after Khyber Pass.

Of course, the buses going up Queen Street now get jammed (and usually take as long to get from the Ferry Terminal to K Rd as it does from K Rd to the airport) because the “pedestrian/cycle friendly” policies of the Len Brown Council, where they short-phase lights all the way up Queen – great for pedestrians, lousy for buses who get caught in the jam as a result.

So yes, it seems odd he moans about public transport – especially one of the better modes in Auckland – then demands even more public transport, when really the solution was right there for him the whole time. And the reason the buses are few and far between is because his mates on the Council diddle with the lights. Go figure.

Actually, could it be that Wussel is such a non-entity, a drab grey flake of a man, that the bus driver simply looked and thought… no one there?

Yes, rail is fantastically expensive, and can work when it is within land corridors or coast lines
to and from cities with massive population.
For instance the physical land corridor beside the Hudson river to Manhattan.

But Bangkok airport drops off maybe a hundred thousand of tourists off every day,
and yet and the rail transport to the City is an utter failure.
This is because the destinations of the people are spatial
Even if you do get to make it to the central stations with you heavy bags and tired eyes, there is still a taxi to find

“Alan, Sydney had another motivation, the airport connection was completed for the 2000 Olympics. But to be honest, apart from peak traffic times, a taxi is just as quick, far more convenient and not that much more expensive.”

Fundamentally disagree. Even at off peak time it’s $60 for a cab into city from airport, regardless if you take the motorway or botany road it’s still 40 minutes minimum.

The train is just $18, it’s a big difference. The train makes 9:00am meetings in Sydney practical

I think the bus-driver probably thought Russell was an escapee from the local institution…Anyway Russell should know to follow the example of Len Brown and catch the bus but have a chauffeur driven car accompany it to the final destination in case a situation may arise.

I used to catch early morning flights, and the problem wasn’t that the airbus wouldn’t stop, but that it wouldn’t come! Seriously, I’d go on their web site and look up the time and the stop, and then go out there 15-20 minutes early, sometimes an hour later I’d still be waiting there with only airport to city buses going past. I couldn’t work it out. I’d have locals come past on their way somewhere, then come back having done it, and they’d stop to ask if they could help me out as it was obvious I wasn’t getting whatever bus I wanted.

I do not celebrate the bus not stopping for Russel Norman, as who would recognise him if they saw him? Not me. That to me means that they could skip picking any one of us up.

Airbus are a company that do a poor job, that’s the only conclusion I can draw.

Some serious questions need to be asked of the driver. Foremost are: 1) did you recognise Norman jumping about like an idiot in front of you, and 2) if you did, where on earth didn’t you just drive over the top of him?

While talking about the Greens –what is this bit about them challenging the Nats over not being able to afford tax cuts. Have I missed something –I don’t think the Nats have promised tax cuts. I thought English “nothing at the moment”

Or is this some diversion from Norman to take notice away from the criticism of his fairyland economic figures ?

lots of non auckland people in here who drive everywhere !
public transport is not funny due to the untamable beast that is AT. ( thanks (noT) Rodney hide). ahh well never mind aye its only the scummy poor who travel on it and we all know they dont matter

Does anyone other than backpackers use the airbus? Businessmen will use taxis, no matter what flash and speedy and subsidised public transport Norman can dream up. Travellers with luggage will use shuttles: come to your door, driver helps you with luggage, booked for a time that suits. Safe, convenient and hassle-free. Of course, shuttles are just small buses run by private businesses – we can’t allow such efficient enterprise. The State must provide.

“Does anyone other than backpackers use the airbus?” In some places when apps like http://car.ma gets going the taxi drivers complain. That app only allows you to charge a portion of expenses, but some allow a bit extra. Do you support them or are you trying to protect taxi drivers?